I knew the dress was a Ricchetti Design. I made it my business to keep up with Charlotte’s collections. One day I hoped to feature her designs in my boutique.
“So, tell me, how on earth did you get my brother, the hermit, to host a dinner party?” I asked, peering over her shoulder, spying on Alex once more. From the looks of it, I wasn’t the only one staring at him. My last count was ten—ten other women gazing in his direction.
She laughed. “We’re trying this new thing where we have a relationship and include our friends and family. I’m afraid we’re both guilty of hiding out.”
I completely understood what she was talking about. After some embarrassing mishaps with the paparazzi, I learned very quickly to stay inside my flat, especially when Ronan had a big event. That was when they hounded me relentlessly, hoping I’d do something scandalous to sell their papers. Assholes.
“Before I forget, I wanted to say how much I appreciate this party,” I replied gesturing around the living room of their gorgeous penthouse.
“Oh, please, it’s our pleasure,” she said, looping her arm through mine. “Let’s grab a drink shall we?”
As we sauntered across the room, I had to bite back a laugh. Holliday seemed quite comfortable with her place as Ronan Connolly’s live-in girlfriend. I loved that she had that confidence about her.
“Are you having any luck finding a space for your boutique?”
“No,” I replied with a sigh. “And I’m afraid with only two locations left to inspect, I might have hit a dead end.”
“I’m sure you’ll find the perfect location soon enough,” she replied, offering me a reassuring smile along with a glass of champagne.
I exhaled, and took a long drink. “Thanks, I’m in need of some optimism.”
We carried on like two old friends. She was sweet and very easy to talk to and I could see why Ronan was so taken with Holliday, she was beautiful inside and out.
We chatted for a while she provided an adorably hilarious story about how she and my brother once had a fight during a lightening round confessional that included shots of whiskey. God, I loved her, and I was quite positive that Ronan would marry her.
One of the catering staff approached and explained to Holliday that she was needed in the kitchen. She politely excused herself and said she’d meet up with me later. It gave me an opportunity to explore Ronan’s new place.
As I moved from room to room, I chatted with a few people I knew. Everyone was having fun, talking and laughing. It was a relaxed and casual gathering, despite everyone here was dressed for the red carpet. The sound of Michael Buble’s velvety smooth crooning of “Who’s Lovin’ You” brought the ladies to their feet. The man’s voice is pure sex, orgasmic.
Although, there was no designated dance floor, that didn’t stop Holliday and her friend Tinley Atkinson from getting the party started. At the sight of the gorgeous, tall and tattooed movie star, Matthew Barber taking Tinley into his arms and sweeping her across the floor, I pictured Alex and me holding each other and gliding across the room.
Leaning against the wall, I knocked back the rest of my drink and grabbed another from a petite and beautiful Asian woman who moved through the crowd with the grace of a dancer. Her sleek black ponytail swung, as she zig zagged around the well-dressed party-goers with ease. I lifted the glass to my lips and felt a hand squeeze my shoulder. It sent my heart racing, at the thought it might be Alex.
“Hey, Lolly,” my brother said, bumping my elbow with his arm. “Enjoying the party?”
“Oh, yes, I’m having loads of fun,” I replied, and immediately my body tensed at the sound of my words. It was evident I couldn’t hide my disappointment, that I was secretly hoping to hear Alex’s voice.
“Are you okay?” he asked, swirling the whiskey in his glass. Jameson Vintage or Midleton Very Rare, I suspected, his preferred choices.
“Yeah, I’m all good.” I pivoted on my heel to face him. My brother’s eyes were dazzling. A sparkle that I’d never noticed before. It was as if he was transfixed under some kind of hypnotic spell. My gaze followed his and landed right on Holliday. I looked back at him to find him grinning like a fool. A lovesick fool. Yep, he was in love, which meant he was in a fantastic mood. I took advantage of the opportunity to question him about his ex-stalker.
“I’d ask how you were, but it’s written all over your face. Instead, I want to know what’s the deal with all the security? Is your stalker back in the picture?”
“What?” His brows scrunched together. “No, that nut job is safely locked away in a cold jail cell.”
“Then what gives?” I asked, pulling my shoulders back. “And don’t you feed me some cock and bull line.”
Blowing out a deep breath, he nodded towards the hallway and I followed him to his home office. He shut the door and motioned for me to take a seat. If the thought of the psycho had me spooked, this private meeting had me fearing the worst.
“The reason for the security is strictly a precaution,” he replied, taking a seat across from me. “I just want to make sure that you are safe while you’re here in the city.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, so you’ve mentioned.”
“Roll your eyes all you want, but you know that my instincts are never wrong. Alex informed Dean that a man named Charlie approached you the other day during lunch. And by his description, I’m willing to bet all the whiskey in Ireland that it was Charlie McNeil.”
Balls! Alex had been reporting back to Dean about my daily activities. I should have known or at the very least, Alex could have told me that he would be doing that. I stared down at my champagne glass, watching the bubbles float to the top and disappear. My hands started to shake, and I didn’t know whether to cry or scream.
“Ella, did he follow you here?”
“No, I asked him that very question. He told me that had to move here because he’s unable to sell his pictures in the UK, which we knew about the pictures because of the trial. I guess he takes sporting event pictures now. But Charlie wasn’t the entire problem,” I said, tapping my finger to the glass. “Alex doesn’t know about David, Charlie, and the whole trial does he? Ronan, please tell me you didn’t tell him.”
“No, that’s your private business to tell whom you choose.”
“Sometimes I feel guilty over the legal battle where Charlie was involved.”
“Ella, you should not feel badly, you were the victim. They made their own choices and now they are living with the consequences. Do you want to get a restraining order against Charlie while you’re here?”
“No,” I replied, pushing to my feet. “As I told Alex, Charlie is a lot of things, but he was just an opportunist who made a bad deal with my ex.”
A knock at the door interrupted our conversation. Holliday entered, letting us know dinner was going to be served shortly. Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling too cheery, chatty or hungry.
“Can I escort you two lovely ladies to dinner?”
“I will catch up in a bit. I need to use the lavatory . . . powder room.”
“Use the guest bathroom upstairs,” Holliday instructed, rounding the back of the leather sofa. “Once you pass through the gallery, it’s the fourth door on the right.”
After they left, I took a minute to collect myself. Thinking back to that ugly and embarrassing time in my life left me feeling a little scattered. It had taken a lot of time to heal from my painful break-up with David, and the fact that it was a highly publicized scandal, splashed all over the gossip rags, didn’t help matters. The only man I’d ever loved. The bastard took my heart, threw it in a blender and then pressed crush.
Behind me, I heard the shuffling of chairs smoothing across the hardwood floor as I nipped up the staircase to find the lav . . . damn it, the powder room. I needed to hurry, and get back before they finished serving dinner. As I strode through the gallery and down the corridor, the city lights splashed across the carpet and up the walls. The view was incredible, and I wished that the evening’s we
ather had been warm enough to sit outside on the magnificent wraparound balcony.
I heard footsteps behind me, and pivoted to find Alex coming up the staircase. He craned his neck and my eyes met his.
“Hey, there you are.”
He said something more as he rounded the railing, but I tuned him out and walked away.
“Ella, where are you going?” he asked, his footsteps growing closer down the dimly lit hallway.
“Go away, Alex. I’d rather not be around you at the moment.”
“Okay, I’m gathering that you’re mad, and obviously at me.”
We came to a stop in front of a door, and I turned to face him. “As a matter of fact I am. Why did you have to tell Dean about Charlie? I had the situation handled. You knew he’d tell my brother, and that was one thing I didn’t need.”
“Calm down, Ella.”
“Did you seriously just say that to me? I am calm.”
“Wait, I didn’t mean it that way,” he said, and gently tugged my arm bringing me around to face him. “I meant keep your voice down.”
“You are my employee, and you don’t get to talk to me that way. You work for me, remember?” My voice seethed with anger as I shoved a finger at his chest. “You don’t get to tell me how to behave.” I wiggled from the hold he had on me, and turned away grasping for the handle of the door. Before I could open it, he slapped his palms against the wood.
He enveloped me, pinning me between him and the door. “I am well aware of the fact that your brother hired me to lookout for you,” he rasped in my ear.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore because you’re fired.”
“Good luck with that, Ella,” he scoffed, and in a fluid motion spun me around to face him once more. His bright hazel eyes narrowed, focused on me. “No one else applied for this job. Only me.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“Trust me, sweetheart, I have the advantage here, not you. You see, I was recommended to babysit your trouble-making ass.”
“Fuck you, you’re an asshole,” I hissed, trying to move away, but he’d pinned my arms above my head.
“Is that really what you want?” he asked his hand curling around my waist. “For me to fuck you?”
It was unbearable—how close he was to me. Anger and lust were in an epic battle of disagreement inside me. All the memories of our night together came flooding back. I could lose myself in this moment, guide him into the bathroom and . . . swallowing hard, I needed to regain my composure. But, for a little while longer, his question would wait as I relished the feel of him against me.
Panting softly, I licked my dry lips. “I don’t want anything from you.”
“Really?” He cocked an eyebrow, and his free hand slipped underneath my dress sliding across the edge of my panties. I jerked at the contact, and he pressed his chest against my breasts.
“Yes, really.”
“Liar, you forget who you’re dealing with,” he replied, moving his fingers over my soaked panties. His teeth scraped across my earlobe. I wanted Alex. Everything inside me pulled in different directions.
“I’m not lying.” My soaked panties didn’t exactly help my case.
“You lied and here’s how I know: we never lost eye contact, and your voice lowered an octave,” he informed, stroking me back and forth. My eyes closed, as I sagged against the door. “Contrary to popular belief, most people will look you in the eye when they’re lying, assuming they’re less likely to be caught by doing the opposite of what was expected.”
His lips connected with mine. Sliding my tongue into his mouth, I deepened our kiss. His hand fell from the hold he’d had on my wrists, landing on my waist. My arms roped around his neck.
I kissed Alex hard. Our movements were hurried and unapologetic. Everything that had built up between us over the last week came barreling through at hyper-speed, like a train whose brakes had gone out. It sent a warning light to my brain, telling me I should stop before we went off the rails, but it seems my self-control had abandoned me. And I was sure his had jumped the track as well.
I didn’t want a quick fuck in my brother’s bathroom in the middle of a party. One of us had to have some self-control.
Breathless, I shoved at his shoulder. “This is . . . I’m still mad at you and I don’t feel either of us is thinking clearly.”
Alex pulled back, holding my gaze. His hands smoothed my dress down. Saying nothing he turned and walked away, leaving me alone, my body clinging against another doorframe, panting and aching with need for him once again.
WHEN I RETURNED TO the party, I took my brother aside and told him I wasn’t feeling well. As I expected, Ronan insisted Alex take me back to the hotel. With Holliday’s help, I managed to convince him that I would be perfectly fine taking a cab.
Once I stepped off the elevator, I hurried through the empty lobby. I pulled my coat tighter around me as I stood waiting for a cab outside Ronan’s building. The air was chilly, but it did nothing to relieve the four-alarm fire raging in my body. Despite the calm demeanor I displayed when I left the party, I was anything but.
As I climbed into the back of the yellow taxi I thought about what just happened between Alex and me. I’d like to say it was unexpected, but who was I kidding. It was only a matter of time before we’d have our hands all over each other again, purring and panting like a pair of wild animals.
“Where to, miss?”
At half-past eight on a Saturday evening in the city that never slept, I didn’t know where to go. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, I wanted to go back to Alex’s suite, or mine, and shag him. And that was the problem. So I did what I needed to do, which was leave and get my wits about me.
“Could you drive around a while? I’ll have a destination soon.”
“Fine by me, it’s your money.”
Leaning back against the seat, I dug my smartphone out of my purse. I had a missed call from Alex and a text: You left? Where are you?
Before replying to his message, I fired off a few texts to Gavin. Hoping he was still in the city. My phone pinged seconds later. As luck would have it, he was staying at the Onyx SkyLofts and invited me to come over. My shoulders sagged with relief and I redirected the driver to midtown. I inhaled deeply and seriously began to think about what just happened. My eyes peered out the window and I watched as the colorful electricity of the city whirled past me in.
Alex had sent another text message: Please talk to me. I need to know that you’re safe.
Me: I’m fine, except for having a headache. Need some rest. Chat soon.
After I hit send, I powered down my phone. I wasn’t ready to talk to Alex yet. At some point, I would see him and we’d have to talk. I wasn’t sure what I’d say. What would he say?
As I stepped off the elevator into the private foyer, a raven-haired exotic beauty, whom I guessed was about my age, passed by giving me a tight-lipped smile. Gavin was leaning against the doorjamb with his shirt unbuttoned and his dark hair was damp. To say he was a ladies’ man, would be an understatement. I’m fairly certain that he wouldn’t be giving up his bachelor status anytime soon.
“A friend of yours?” I teased, tugging on the collar of his dress shirt.
Gavin pulled me into a hug, as soon as I entered his suite. “Come in, Mademoiselle,” he drawled, pulling me deeper into the room.
“Wow, this place is spectacular.” I shrugged out of my coat and draped it over the back of a wingback chair. Captivated, I stood breathless, taking in the lavish surroundings accented with marigold yellow and rich reds. The space was filled with antiques and impressive artwork. “I think I could live here.”
“Not me, although I do love New York, London will always be home.”
“I don’t know, Gavin,” I replied, motioning towards the floor to ceiling windows that occupied an entire wall. “This view is impressive.”
“Where’s your man?” he asked, nudging me with this elbow. “You know, the one that calls you
babe?”
Of course, Gavin was only joking about Alex, but it didn’t make me feel any less awkward.
“He’s working.”
“Isn’t his work guarding you?”
My eyes narrowed. How did he know that? And then it hit me, Nabila must have told him. Quickly, I switched topics unsure if I was ready to talk about Alex.
“Why didn’t you mention that you were on a date?” I asked taking a seat on the couch. “I would have understood.”
He laughed, and ignored my question. “Care for a drink?”
“Might as well.”
With the bottle and two filled glasses in hand, Gavin joined me on the couch. He handed me one and I took a big gulp of the burgundy colored liquid.
“Something is weighing on you. You look stressed. Is it Mr. Robertsen?”
“It’s a combination of things, but no, Alex isn’t the reason for my stress, confusion maybe,” I replied, before polishing off my glass. “But that can wait. I want to know how your shoot went.”
“The shoot is Monday.”
“And the lady who just left, is she the star of the photoshoot?”
“No, Isabelle didn’t make the cut.” He ran a hand through his wavy hair. “She was feeling upset, and so I . . .”
“You offered her solace.” I finished his sentence and refilled my glass.
“Solace, yes, seems that I’m on double duty tonight.”
“I don’t need solace.”
“Oh no?” He tilted his head, and lifted a brow. “You left your own party early, and I can tell that something is on your mind. I’m certain it has something to do with the American muscle.”
“Ugh, could you please stop referring to Alex in that silly manner. It’s dreadful.” I laughed, leaning my head back into the sofa cushions.
“Start talking and I’ll consider dropping the nickname.”
Of course, I told Gavin everything. Starting with how I’d met Alex, and then what happened when saw each other the next day. From there, I couldn’t stop yammering on about the trip to his Hampton’s home, our sweet chats, and how thoughtful he’d been setting up a private massage when I wasn’t feeling well. It had been less than a week and here I was gushing about a man that when I’d met him, I didn’t want to know a thing about him.
Bound to Me (The Harbour Series Book 1) Page 7